Bats and bugs at home in organic garden

Lesson time at St Bernadette’s Primary is about more than reading,writing and arithmetic. There are also radishes, rhubarb and roses – and that’s without the bug hotel and the bat boxes. If it sounds a little unusual, that’s because it is.

AWARD-WINNING: The organic garden at St Bernadette’s Primary School in Brinnington, Stockport

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Lesson time at St Bernadette’s Primary is about more than reading,writing and arithmetic.

There are also radishes, rhubarb and roses – and that’s without the bug hotel and the bat boxes. If it sounds a little unusual, that’s because it is.

But the Brinnington school is fast becoming the envy of others all over the country, scooping four national awards in the last year and attracting the attention of Jamie Oliver – and all down to its trailblazing organic garden.

Now thanks to its garden, St Bernadette’s has been named a flagship school by the national Food For Life scheme, linked to Jamie’s school dinners campaign.

Breakfast club organiser Michelle Walsh said: "We have been doing this for about five years, well before Jamie’s school dinners, in fact. We were probably one of the first.

"We hope Jamie is going to come here because he wants to see the progress of his campaign. He’s looking at another scheme to pick up and because St Bernadette’s has done so well with its garden he’s considering ours."

Every kind of seasonal, organic produce is grown from scratch in the children’s little patch of wilderness.

Badgers, bats and weasels have gradually moved in, along with a host of bugs and bees.

Each summer the garden is piled high with fresh produce, and at the moment children are planting peas and putting up poly-tunnels for strawberries.

Thanks to this pioneering thinking, in the last year St Bernadette’s has been named national Breakfast Club of the Year, voted top three in the Education and Business Awards and highlighted in Ofsted’s annual report.

And the accolades extend beyond the school.

Headteacher Mike O’Brien said: "Brinnington being recognised nationally is a great leap forward. It’s real kudos for the people of the area."

Children are even teaching their parents about food, rather than the other way around.

Across Brinnington, berry bushes will flower in window boxes this summer and beans will be harvested from back gardens.

Michelle said: "This week alone maybe six or seven children have taken home strawberry gardens. Even people in the tower blocks are growing things in boxes. The children educate the parents. It’s a fantastic achievement."